Soil sterilizer apparatus



Aug. 27, 1968 H. J. RUETENIK SOIL STERILIZER APPARATUS Filed Sept. 28,1967 M OE urlll fr ll ...IN L

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INVENTOR HOWARD J. RUETENIK BY Mv,

ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,398,706 SOIL STERILIZER APPARATUSHoward J. Ruetenik, Box 5, Green Valley, Ariz. 85614 Continuation-impartof application Ser. No. 556,375, June 9, 1966. This application Sept.28, 1967, Ser. No. 671,392,

4 Claims. (Cl. 111-7) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A soil sterilizingldevice is provided with a fiat plate adapted to slide in a path overthe surface of the soil in contact with the soil over substantially theentire under surface of the plate. A plurality of furrowing blades arerigidly secured to the plate and extend downwardly therefrom into thesoil. 'Ihese blades are spaced laterally across the plate normal to thepath of Itravel of the sterilizer in a plurality of lateral rows. Theselateral rows are spaced |longitudinally of the plate in the direction ofthe path of travel. Immediately behind each furrow blade is a jetforming means in the plate, together with means for supplying a streamof sterilizing material under pressure to this jet forming means at eachblade location, the preferred sterilizing material being mentioned assteam. A preferred arrangement of the furrowing blades is to have thosein each lateral row staggered laterally relative to the blades in therows ahead of and behind it. This results in a large number of parallelfurrows being treated by one passage of the sterilizer device so thatthe entire area is evenly treated with steam which is held trapped inthe soil by the plate until the plate has passed entirely over the spot.

Specification This application is a continuation-in-part of my copendingapplication Ser. No. 556,375, tiled June 9, 1966, now abandoned.

This invention relates to improvements in a soil sterilizer apparatus.

One of the objects of the present invention is to introduce asterilizing jet stream into the upper layer of soil in a simple butefficient manner.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a soil sterilizer,wherein `a furrowing member is adapted to be moved through the soil tobe sterilized, and means is provided for passing a sterilizing jet intothe soil space opened up by the furrowing member, and -to hold thesterilizing material in the soil until the sterilizer has passed on.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent in thespecification and drawings and the essential features -will be set forthin the appended claims.

In the drawings,

PIG. 1 is a side elevational view of t-he soil sterilizer of thisinvention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the sterilizer of FIG. 1 with a reservoirhood removed for clarity;

FIG. 3 is an end elevational view of the device of FIGS. l and 2; whileFIG. 4 is a fragmental sectional view, enlarged, taken along the line 44 of FIG. 2.

One of the uses of this invention is to destroy weed seed in the soil orat least to prevent it from germinating. It has been demonstrated thatmost weed seeds are killed at temperatures of 160 to 170 F. and, sincemost seed will only germinate in close proximity to the surface of thesoil, it is only necessary to treat about the first one and a halfinches of the soil at t-he top layer thereof.

This invention has been described in connection with the use of steam asa sterilizing jet, although those skilled in this ait will understandthat other sterilizing material might be used in the same jets.

4The invention relates more to the apparatus for applying the jet to thesoil rather than the specific nature of the jet itself.

In FIGS. l through`4, l have shown an embodiment of the inventionincluding a hollow reservoir 10 having a flat bottom surface 11 adaptedto slide over the surface of the soil. A plurality of furrowing membersor blades 12 are rigidly secured to the reservoir member and projectfrom the bottom thereof to extend into the soil preferably for adistance of one and one-half inches or such depth as the need dictates.In this embodiment, the furrowing members are -individual 'blades ofsteel about 5/16" thick and a total length of 3 inches and projectingabout 1%" at their depth of greatest penetration. This is for a smallsize device about fourteen inches wide and a little over four feet -longbut larger devices are used for treating the soil in an outside lield.The invention is not limited to any particular size device. As best seenin FIG. 2, in this particular embodiment there are twelve rows of bladescrosswise of the sterilizer spaced three inches apart in each lateralrow and the lateral rows four inches apart longitudinally. It will benoted that every lateral row is staggered with respect to other lateralrows so that the furrowing members 12 will cut closely parallel pathsthrough the soil. In FIG. 2 it will 'be noted that the longitudinal rowsof blades are not parallel to the sides of bottom plate 10. Actually, ofthe three blades in the bottom row, each one is spaced 1A inch fartherfrom the near side of plate 11 than the preceding one. Then theleft-hand blade in the Second row is 1A inch farther than the last orright-hand blade in row one. Then las you look to the right in row twoeach blade is 1A inch farther up than the next preceding blade. The samepattern is followed in all nine longitudinal rows so that one passage ofthe ste-rilizer opens up parallel furrows spaced 1A inch apart over thearea traversed. It is obvious that the furrows opened up by one lateralrow of blades is at least partially closed by earth displaced by bladesin following lateral rows. rReferring to FIG. 4, each blade 12 is shownas secured by threaded studs 13 and nuts 14 to the bottom plate 11 ofthe upper reservoir member.

Also, as noted in FIG. 4, means is provided to introduce the sterilizingjet into the soil space opened up by the furrowing members 12. In thisembodiment, the rear end of the blade at 12a is inclined from its lowerpart upwardly and forwardly in the direction of the sterilizer path ofmovement. In this particular form, the inclined surface 12a begins about1/2 above the lowest tip of the blade and is inclined forwardly about V2in the upper one inch of the blade as clearly seen. Jet forming openings15 are provided in the bottom plate 11 of the reservoir and in thisspecific form each one is a 1A" diameter hole fitted with a nozzle 15ahaving a bore which will usually be about 1/s" more or less and locatedabove the inclined end 12a of the furrowing member. The nozzle 15a maybe varied to tit the conditions. It results from this construction thatas the furrowing member moves in the direction of the arrow of FIG. 4,the soil is temporarily opened up by passage of the blade 12 leavingsutlicient opening for a jet stream discharging downwardly through theopening 15 or 15a and passing into the soil down to the lowest extent ofthe blade 12. There is one of these jet forming openings 15 in the samerelative position with respect to each one of the furrowing members 12.This results in the entire area of soil traversed being subjected tojets of steam every 1A inch apart laterally across the surface. Thesteam is held trapped in the soil by the plate until the plate haspassed entirely over the area.

To supply the sterilizing jet to each of the jet openings 15, a hood 16completely encloses the space above the plate 11 of the sterilizermember and is provided with an inlet 17 for the introduction of a streamof sterilizer material, such as steam, into the hood or reservoir 16. Inthis case, a baille 18 serves to more evenly distribute the steam tovarious parts of the reservoir 16.

In using the device of this invention for killing or discouraging the`germination of weed seeds, the sterilizer device is pulled toward theleft as viewed in FIG. 1 by any suitable means while the -sterilizerjets emerge from the openings 15a so as to thoroughly treat the soil asdesired. The steam is preferably at a temperature to heat the soilbetween about 160 and about 170 F. although a higher temperature will dono harm.

This invention thus provides a simple method and apparatus for theshallow sterilization of soils. The ilat bottom of plate 11 is tightupon the soil as the sterilizer passes over it so that steam injectedfrom any of the nozzles 15a is held trapped in the soil until the plate11 has passed entirely over that point. The blades are so staggered inthe various lateral rows that each blade is followed (except as to thelast row) by a blade in a following lateral row close enough to at leastpartially close the furrows opened by the blades in preceding rows sothat the soil is impregnated with the steam in closely spaced parallelfurrows which steam is held trapped in the soil by the plate 11.

What is claimed is:

1. A soil sterilizer comprising a at plate adapted to slide in a pathover the surface of the soil in contact therewith over substantially theentire under surface of said plate, a plurality of furrowing bladesrigidly secured to said plate and extending downwardly therefrom, saidblades spaced laterally across said plate normal to said path in aplurality of lateral rows, said rows spaced longitudinally of said platein the direction of said path, jet

forming means supported by said plate immediately behind each of saidblades, and means for supplying a stream of sterilizing material underpressure to said jet forming means, whereby, as said at plate is movedover the soil and along said path, closely lspaced furrows in said soilare treated with sterilizing material which is held trapped in said soilby said plate until said plate has passed entirely over said spot.

2. A soil sterilizer as defined in claim 1 wherein said blades in everylateral row are staggered laterally relative to the blades in otherrows.

3. A soil sterilizer as dened in claim 1 wherein said blades in eachlateral row are staggered laterally relative to the blades in thelateral rows ahead of and behind it with such lateral spacing that theblades '2in one lateral row force soil into the furrows formed by theblades in a preceding lateral row.

4. A soil sterilizer as defined in claim 3 wherein said stream ofsterilizing material is steam.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 992,14() 5/ 1911 Anderberg et al111-6 1,021,530 3/1912 Johnson 111-6 X 1,093,786 4/1914 Korthauer 111--72,515,317 7/1950 Schindler 111-7 2,625,123 1/1953 Morgan 1l17.1

FOREIGN PATENTS 911,780 4/ 1946 France. 825 ,775 12/ 1951 Germany.

ROBERT E. BAGWILL, Primary Examiner.

